Mommyish Poll: What Do You Think Of TIME Magazine’s Controversial Cover?

We’ve all seen it by now: the jaw-dropping TIME magazine cover that shows an almost-4-year-old boy drinking milk from his MILFy mom’s breast. I’ve discussed it ad nauseam – with friends, family, colleagues – and the collective response is a definitive “Gross!”

What’s so interesting to me is how immediate people’s reactions seem to be. Just last night, for instance, I was out for dinner with a couple of girlfriends. “Have you seen that disgusting TIME cover?” asked one. Our friend had not seen it and so I pulled up the image on my iPhone. “That’s gross!” she blurted out despite being a totally down-to-earth, non-judgemental mother who breastfed each of her four children.

That got me thinking: is there anyone out there who actually likes this photo? Even those moms who themselves breastfed their kids past age 2 are put off by this cover because they’re portrayed in a less-than-flattering light (at least that’s what I’m hearing from the attachment parenting moms I spoke with). Some say it sexualizes the act of breastfeeding, while others complain it’s purely sensationalistic.

Now we’d like to hear your take. Take our poll and weigh in the comments section below.

The extended BF moms I know hate the cover because it is a publicity stunt on the part of a magazine desperate for sales.

Delorean

I am all for breast feeding as it is not only beneficial in delivering antibodies in building a child’s immunological defences, but building the bond between mother and child. I take issue with the photo in that #1 there is no bond with her child, no holding, no touching. It suggests that she picked someone elses child to breast feed.
#2 the child is too big for age. He looks to be 5-6. By this age children are exposed to sexual imagery in cartoons, commercials, school and friends. #3 her breasts are way too small, it doesn’t seem to me she is still lactating. Hence another sexual – incestuous connotation. Oral fixation of the child and and gratification of the mother. This is why we are creeped out by photo.
#4 where is the husband in the pic? If he was in the photo with hands crossed or in the plain picture , there would not be so many sexual connotations, as she is having relations with him. #5 the expressions of child and mother: the child looking at us, like he’s been caught doing something wrong and the mother looking at us in defiance; so what?
Break down the picture, piece by piece. With society placing sex Ed in elementary schools, could this be another perversion out of the closet? Again breast feeding is excellent, and highly recommended. But that picture does not convey love, the inbreakable bond mother and child through God’s design and purpose. It’s just media’s attempt to corrupt and pervert the family unit once again.

Elaina Tyler

A father photographed in a similar manner with his almost-4-year-old daughter would surely be in jail by now, and his daughter in protective custody.

Not the same thing, you say, because men don’t breastfeed? In my opinion, neither should a mother be breastfeeding a child who has a full set of teeth and has been fully capable of eating solid foods for YEARS.

I am a 59-year-old mother of three, 2 sons, 1 daughter, all of whom I breastfed, when they were babies and had no teeth, or not enough teeth for chewing solid foods. When they were able to receive all the nourishment they needed without being breastfed, they were weaned.

There are plenty of ways to bond with your child that does not involve them sucking on your body. When a child this age and size is still sucking on his or her thumb, we think something’s wrong.

I was an abused child, and to this day I still suffer with the Post Traumatic Stress scars from my severe childhood abuse. I was abused with vicious words, with violent, undeserved “spankings” that were really beatings, and I was sexually abused, by both of my parents. That’s right, BOTH. My earliest memory of my mother’s sexually abusive behavior happened when I was around 4 or 5, and the last episodes occured when I was 12.

The photo on the cover of Time magazine is blatant, outrageous child abuse, in my opinion. It is unconscionable, on the part of EVERYONE involved. My heart aches for that boy, who will be a young man before we know it. I hope Time starts a trust fund now for his psychiatry bills.